Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the marginal increase this year with regard to funding under land transport. However, I have a number of concerns. Deputy O'Keeffe has already highlighted one that concerns the condition of our regional and county roads. We brought forward a Private Members' motion in January 2018 to which the Minister undertook to reply and outline clearly how he and the Department intend to address the deficiencies highlighted in the review of our county and regional roads. The roads have got progressively worse with the bad weather over the past number of months. I acknowledge that the Minister cannot be blamed for the bad weather. I would not try to land blame on him where it is not merited but he is in a position to ensure that each local authority is adequately resourced to respond to that bad weather. Could he indicate when he will fulfill his commitment under the Private Members' motion and publish his reply and timeframe for the works to be completed?

Under documents to be published, I understand the Department is reviewing optimal land use in terms of settlement strategy. At what stage is that optimal land use review? The Minister identified a number of bottlenecks that would help address and give priority to buses and public transport. Have the various transport companies - Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Irish Rail from a signalling point of view - identified a list of works that could be completed that would alleviate bottlenecks, reduce journey time and increase the efficiency of the service? If so, where are those lists, who is adjudicating them, who is costing them and is there a timeframe for when work might commence?

In his contribution, the Minister mentioned cycling infrastructure. Unfortunately, during his term, the cycling infrastructure budget has almost halved. Perhaps I am missing it in the documents here. Is it the Minister's intention to reverse previous years' reductions in the cycling infrastructure budget? If so, how much does he intend to reverse it by? What is the 2018 figure?

Anyone looking in here today will acknowledge that there are plans for Metro North, BusConnects and new road investments but the simple fact is that I got a phone call yesterday morning from a friend of mine who lives in Dublin 8 who told me that at 8.30 a.m. two trams and three buses passed him by because they were chock-a-block. There is no capacity in our public transport services. With the best will in the world, as Deputy Catherine Murphy already alluded to, there is a five-year lead-in time for any new train to be ordered. The Minister has yet to say what he can do now to address overcrowding. Is there any commitment on his part to increase the number of buses? He constantly says that the number of new buses ordered by Dublin Bus is in the region of 100 or 112 - correct me if I am wrong - but in fact, he never allows for or acknowledges the fact that every year under the 12-year rule, a number of buses go out of service so the net increase in terms of the number of buses for Dublin Bus is in the low teens per annum at a time when the number of people using public transport is increasing steadily, which is to be welcomed. However, people will not continue to use it if it is not reliable and is overcrowded. Unfortunately, this is what is happening now. The longer trams have been delayed. Freedom of information requests I have submitted to the Department indicate that it was aware that there were potential technical difficulties with the longer trams but the Minister proceeded to roll them out. Now we have a situation where they have gone back to the manufacturers.